Narration POV
He ran. He ran as fast as his short legs could carry him. His sneakers slapped against the pavement, the sound drowned out by screaming somewhere behind them, somewhere too close. He ran as his papa dragged him, fingers wrapped around his small wrist, it hurt. Then those hands released him only to pull him up into an embrace. He wasn't running anymore. His dad was.
The boy's arms wrapped around his father's neck. His head bounced as his father's pace quickened.
Now that he wasn't running his head turned back and he could see it. It was gaining on them little by little. Four arms with nails that scraped across the ground, digging and slicing the roads with ease. Its brain bulged grotesquely from its skull, pulsing. No eyes. A mouth hat stretched from one end of it's face to the other.
He was gaining. No, he was already on them. The boy wanted to shout. He wanted to scream to his papa. The words caught in his throat, terror strangling his vocal chords so he couldn't speak out.
The villain's arm was raised. The creature brought it down, slicing the air and creating an audible sound that rang in the boy and father's ears. The father didn't turn but simply clutched his son closer to his chest, hoping to protect him with his body as best he could. He curled around the small form in his arms.
Then -
Light. Golden and warm. The villain stopping dead in their tracks. Blood seeping out from the middle, slowly at first, a thin dark line appearing all the way from the top of it's head to the bottom of it's cervix. Then a sound like cloth tearing apart, or skin being peeled off. Wet. The father and son both turned around.
The Nomu lay dead, bisected in twain, dark blood pooling beneath them, slowly making its way towards the father's shoes. The creature's halves had fallen away from each, innards spilling onto the concrete in a steaming heap. In the villain's place was a boy.
The man and son couldn't take their gazes away. Blonde hair disheveled that fell to his nape. Blue eyes. Adorned with armor, straight out of a fairytale with a blue and golden cape billowing behind him, the dark blood dripping down it and him in rivulets, pooling at his feet to mix with that of the monster he had slain.
And the most eye-catching thing was the sword glowing in his hand, shining, and the smile on the boy's face.
"You're safe. I am here."
And with those words he was gone. The light went with him. The father sank to his knees, his son still clutched to his chest, and wept tears of joy.
Arthur POV
I ran. Street after street, prioritizing damage control and people in danger rather than the Nomus themselves. My senses stretched out across the prefecture, driven to their incredibly enhanced limits.
A family trapped beneath rubble; there, a woman clutching a child behind an overturned car; further still, an elderly man frozen in terror as one of those things stalked toward him.
When I did see a Nomu I didn't waver. I cut them down one after the other. Excalibur excited in my grip, her edge meeting no resistance. I kept repeating it over in my head.
They are dead. They are dead. They are dead. They are -
I separate the legs of another Nomu I find, the blade passing through muscle and bone as if through water. Then I cut its torso from hip to shoulder, a diagonal stroke that Excalibur completes before the creature can even register the pain. Gravity takes hold of the body parts and they squelch onto the ground, black blood spreading on the asphalt.
A part of a building is falling. I hear the groan of stressed concrete, the scream of someone below. I jump to catch it, mana reinforcing my muscles as I guide the debris slowly to the ground.
A woman stares up at me from where she had been cowering, tears streaming down her face. I offer her a smile before I'm moving again.
Minutes go by. One Nomu. Then another. Then three more. I lose count. I stop trying to count. Each one falls the same way, quickly, cleanly, returned to the rest they had been denied.
Save who I can save.
Until finally I am done. There is still crying but the screams have stopped, instead the crackle of flames, fill my ears. I stay rooted to my spot, standing in the middle of a street painted black with Nomu blood.
I can feel a smile form on my face. It doesn't reach my eyes. Still I think I am... happy. Or something close to it.
I sheathe Excalibur in Avalon. I do not worry about the blood that got on her. They both are impossible to stain, the blood simply slides off them.
I look up to the night sky. Light pollution makes it so that almost no stars are visible to normal eyes. Still I see them all, thousands upon thousands of points of light.
It's beautiful in a way I can't describe. I feel my smile widening if only a bit.
Then I feel a hand on my shoulder.
My body doesn't tense. I had heard him approaching. My eyes turn. A man almost as muscular as All Might himself. Short crimson hair spiked around his head like the crest of some great bird. Flames lick his face in the shape of a moustache and beard.
"Vigilante," he states. There had been a reason why Endeavor hadn't sent me a letter to intern at his agency, turns out he notoriously hated vigilantes.
It's then that I notice Todoroki is behind him. Shoto stands several paces back, his heterochromatic eyes fixed on me with an expression I cannot read. We've never talked much, he and I.
Not even after the sports festival when I had faced him.
My eyes turn back to his father, the number two pro hero.
"Not one anymore. Sir," I replied evenly.
"What are you doing here in Shibuya?"
"I heard the distress call in Yokohama so I decided to come here. My internship mentor should be here soon." I gesture vaguely at the carnage around us, the bisected corpses. "I have eliminated all Nomus in the vicinity. I cannot put out fires, however, without doing severe damage to the surroundings. I'd appreciate your help with that. Fight fire with fire."
My eyes turn to Todoroki.
"You too please. By the way, it's nice seeing you, Shoto."
He smiles as I address him by his hero name, it's gone the next moment.
"Likewise."
I turned back to his father. He was still just staring at me.
Until he didn't. He trudged on without another word, moving toward the nearest blaze. Flames spawned from his hands, consuming the other fire, which he then smothered and put out. Shoto followed after a moment, ice forming around him.
I myself jumped back to the roof I had been standing on before all of this and picked up my phone. The screen was cracked from earlier, but it still worked. I should probably apologize to Nezu for that. Later.
I guess now all that was left was to cure those who had been hurt. Emergency services would be arriving soon, but I could help. I was about to go when I suddenly felt it.
Killing intent.
It was enormous, a pressure against my senses, who could have this? It was beyond anything I had ever encountered? It was also something the nomus didn't have, no, this was coming from... a human.
And it was coming from -
My head turned to where my instinct pointed, my enhanced senses triangulating the source. Not here. Not in Shibuya. Somewhere else.
My legs pushed off the roof and into the air before I had consciously decided to move. The city blurred beneath me as I crossed the distance in nanoseconds, landing onto a street in another of Tokyo's prefectures with enough force to crack the pavement.
Hosu City.
In an alley that stank of blood. I hated that smell.
Midoriya had his fists balled up and raised. Iida was on the floor, one of his legs pierced by a sword that pinned him to the concrete. His breathing was ragged and pained.
Sliding down a wall was the body of another hero, his costume soaked with blood, his heartbeat growing weaker with every passing second.
And standing over Iida, blade raised for another strike, was the source of this malevolent pressure.
Hero Killer, Stain.
I had read about him. Everyone had. His body count was significant. His ideology something that a few even agreed with.
"Midoriya," I speak up. His head doesn't turn to me, it's then that I realize no part of him is moving.
Stain's head does turn, however. His eyes widen when he sees me, taking in the armor, the blood still drying on my gauntlets, the sword in my hand. And then he smiles. Full of teeth, two cracked.
"Arthur."
I unsheathe Excalibur once more. Her light brightens up the alley.
"Stop now. Or I'll stop you myself."
I say that, but my attention is split. I can hear it, the man on the wall, his heartbeat is failing. His lungs are filling with blood. He's lost too much already, and every second I waste talking is a second closer to his death. I cannot let that happen.
I decide not to make things longer than I should.
I dash at Stain. Blitzing him before his perception catches up, closing the distance between us in the space between heartbeats.
The pommel of Excalibur connects with his temple, not the edge, never the edge against a human if I could avoid it, and the impact sends him flying off Iida and slamming into a wall.
Midoriya speaks up, his voice tight with urgency. "Arthur, be careful! His quirk paralyzes you if he tastes your blood."
I guess that's why he didn't answer earlier. How long does the paralysis last, not that it matters, still I nod in acknowledgment. His blades cannot cut me.
Slowly Stain rises. He clutches his head where I struck him, the cloth mask that was covering his eyes falling to the floor. His face is gaunt. Blood trickles from his temple as he begins to froth at the mouth, his eyes rolling with fervor.
"HAHAHA!!" The laughter echoes off the alley walls. "Even for these hypocrites you protect, you really are the best! But don't you see! I'm cutting out the root cause, the reason why you had to become a vigilante! Why I had to! This society punishes those with conviction. It has been poisoned from the inside, by heroes like Endeavor, how is that false hero, number two. No, this system is a cancer and like a cancer you need to, I need to, cut it out at its roots."
I appear in front of him again. This time he actually manages to bring his sword up to block, impressive, but the gap between us is so vast it doesn't matter. I kick his ankle, making him buckle but not breaking it. I slam the pommel into his forehead a little stronger this time, and his eyes roll back as consciousness leaves him.
He crumples to the ground.
"I've had enough philosophical talks about the current system from Nezu," I say to his unconscious form. "I don't need yours."
I turn away from him. My eyes are focused on the man bleeding out against the wall. A 'false' hero.
I sheathe Excalibur in Avalon and then hold out Avalon to the man. She is warm to the touch.
"Grab her."
His hand reaches out, trembling. His fingers find purchase at the edge of the scabbard, barely managing to hold on. Then I begin to heal him, or rather, Avalon does. I'm just supplying the mana.
It doesn't take long. Less than Rin. Less than Aizawa. Still, the man is exhausted, and his eyes flutter closed as healing sleep takes him. I smile. He will live. That's what matters.
I pick him up in a princess carry, careful not to jostle him. Then I move to Stain's unconscious form and sling him over my shoulder like a sack of grain. He's heavier than he looks.
When I turn around, Iida and Midoriya are just looking at me.
Awkward.
A/N: Do not know what to write for this author note, I enjoyed writing this. Especially the beginning but again Arthur is just kinda busted. There is actually a point in the story that is pretty close, that I want to write so fucking bad. It'll be three or four chapters and they will be the best of the entire fic. No contest. I am literally dreaming the dialogue.
Send those stones. Ladies and gents.
Thx for reading. Author out.